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Socialism Doesn’t Make the Poor Richer

Ekosj
@Ekosj
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People on the Left constantly point to the Nordic countries as exemplars of the success of Socialism. But I came across an amazing statistic…

As an example of output from the LIS (Luxembourg Income Study), they had a wonderful paper a decade ago showing that the bottom 10% in the US have the same incomes (yes, PPP adjusted) as the bottom 10% in either Sweden or Finland. While the top 10% [in the US] have very much larger incomes than the top 10% in either country. All that redistribution hasn’t made the Nordic poor richer than the American poor but it has made the rich poorer.

Really?!?!?! That’s incredible. Read that again…

All that redistribution hasn’t made the Nordic poor richer than the American poor but it has made the rich poorer.

Just as we have always suspected. It’s NOT about making the poor better off - although that’s how it’s marketed. It’s about punishing the successful. There’s no high-horse moralism there. That’s just plain old envy!

The only question, then, is, where does the money actually go? Take a guess…

Government! The Nordic Robin Hood steals from the rich but doesn’t give to the poor. Robin and the Merry Men use the money to hire more Merry Men, the better to be able to steal from the rich!

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Discussion (21)

  • cdor@cdor

    Everything the left does (adjusted to most things) is upside down and backwards. They thrive on upheaval for the sake of chaos. In Kansas City yesterday the two 30 year old men who were in a gunfight at the Chiefs Super Bowl parade 3 years ago resulting in the death of a 50 year old woman, just plea- bargained for 2 year sentences, plus time served on a 2nd degree murder charge. The prosecutor is, Of course, a leftist. Their priorities are juvenile.

  • cdor@cdor
    ReplyingtoCarolJoy, Not So Easy To Kill

    CarolJoy, Not So Easy To Kill (View Comment):

    Your thesis is somewhat true. However if you consider the leaders of the CCP socialism in California, like Gruesom Newsom and Congresswoman Maxine Waters, it does benefit some people who have played their cards right and are in the inner circle.

    That is exactly what the OP states. It doesn’t help the poor , It hurts the rich, and it only helps to increase the size of government and their pay

  • Zafar@Zafar

    Perhaps what it has done is entrench the Middle Class?

    oecd.org

    Open link

    From which:

    In all OECD countries but Mexico and Chile, most people live in middle-income households, earning between 75% and 200% of the median national income. The middle-income class thus accounts for 61% of the OECD-wide population, ranging from around one-half in Chile, Mexico and the United States to some 70% in Iceland, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, Norway and Slovak Republic (Figure 2.1). In emerging economies, however, the middle-income class constitutes much smaller shares of populations – from roughly one-third in South Africa to about half in Russia and China.

    It has a very interesting graph showing how the countries compare - but I can't figure out how to copy/paste it.

    Edited to add:

    The graph also shows how as the proportion of the population that is Middle Class decreases the proportion that is poor increases.

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